Tyree's spot up for grabs

Judy Salamone

08/14/2003

New York Giants head coach Jim Fassell has been impressed during preseason camp with rookie and former Syracuse University wide receiver and special teams player David Tyree, who was chosen in the sixth round of the NFL draft in April.

Fassell told Tyree that they needed him for his special teams play. Great for the Giants. But where does that leave Syracuse?

Tyree earned the moniker "football warrior" for his outstanding play on special teams. Tyree led the team in special teams tackles with 19 and blocked a kick during last year's 4-8 season.

Head coach Paul Pasqualoni isn't quite sure just yet who will inherit or who can for that matter, pick up where Tyree left off.

"Are we going to be able to do the job all around in special teams," Pasqualoni asked. "We lose cover guys. We lose David Tyree. David Tyree was drafted by the Giants and he was kind of the cornerstone of our special teams. And he's expected to do the same thing for the Giants. So, we've got to find someone to take over all the things that David Tyree did for us-and he did a lot. So special teams are a worry, and just how the ball bounces, turnover margin-all those things are execution."

Pasqualoni said that Diamond Ferri is taking on some of the responsibility on punt protection, but doesn't know who exactly will do it on kickoff coverage.

"We've got a couple guys we're looking at. I don't know who will do it on punt block returns-David had a knack for blocking punts. We're still kind of in the mode of trying to figure that out. So we have some work to do all around."